chadfo

I bet it is hard to resist. At your age speed is usually a huge enticement. It was for me back then. I still love to go fast but I have to weigh more factors in my life now.

I can't believe I didn't mention this earlier because it's always the second thing I do when I start looking to get a new car. Call your insurance company and get a quote for the Neon. I've marked many cars off my list because the insurance rates were ridiculous. I even looked around to see if it's stolen often and it's not on anyone's top 10 list. I didn't find any sites that went beyond the 10.

If you feel confident you can afford to fix the car if/when it breaks and you are comfortable with the condition of the car I can't give you any specific reason not to trade. I would recommend asking if you can trade cars for a week or weekend so you can drive it around for a while and get a good feel for it.

HawianstylexA

All I know is that gas prices are a real b!+(h and a SRT-4 gets terrible mileage, so I guess I have more to consider when buying a car then speed and gas, never knew qoutes on an SRT could be so high

AngrySnail

[quote="HawianstylexA"]

AngrySnail

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB®) has compiled a list of the 10 vehicles most frequently reported stolen in the U.S. in 2005.

1991 Honda Accord
1995 Honda Civic
1989 Toyota Camry
1994 Dodge Caravan
1994 Nissan Sentra
1997 Ford F150 Series
1990 Acura Integra
1986 Toyota Pickup
1993 Saturn SL
2004 Dodge Ram Pickup

I pay $130 for my TC monthly, and the quote I got from my insr stated around $150 month. It's more, but... do-able...

Trade cars for a weekend?
Can you do that?... I mean, I'm sure you CAN, but.. do you?..

chadfo

What better way to see if it's what you want. If there's an issue with the wastegate and how you drive, he'll have to tell you or risk you damaging the car and giving it back to him. You'll be able to spend more time in it to get a feel for the seats and how it rides. You can see how it reacts to your driving.

It's the best way to see if you really like the car. It'll give you the perfect opportunity to have a mechanic check it out. It also gives him the opportunity to check out your car.

If nothing else, ask him to let you drive it to a mechanic to have it checked out. He can even ride with you. It'll give you some seat time and you can always make up some detours to try out the car in different areas.

AngrySnail

Chad...
i'm off to see the car n o w _
I'll keep you posted- again, thanks for taking the time.

Dyltone

Snail... Please take a ride up to West Palm.

I have the unique perspective of having boosted and blown up a tC and having a roommate with an SRT4.

Having said that, if you want a turbo, you must buy a car that is FACTORY BOOSTED, unless you want to spend way more than the cost of the kit to get it reliable. There are many boosted tC's on here that will tell you their car is reliable and they drive the hell out of it. I actually held pieces of my pistons in my hands (No good). I like the "options" on the tC more, I like the looks of the tC more but... When you get in to that SRT, it just feels like race car and that's in it's stock trim. The seats, the gauges, the stiffness in the shifts and gobs of top end power... all the way to 160!

Robs_tc

Factory cars would be the way to go as far as reliability. I could have gone out and picked up an STI or something along those lines but I wanted to drive something that was different. The SRT4 is cheap when comparing it to other factory boosted cars which is why I think it may be a good buy. There’s just to many of them around. And even though there are many boosted tC’s around the Scion tuning community, they're rare as hell to see in person unless going to a huge show like HIN. If you can’t or just don’t want to spend the money by making the tC a reliable boosted car, the SRT4 becomes a great alterative. Either way a boosted tC with a stock block probably won't last as long as a built SRT4 motor but who knows.

You also have to consider there's good reason why your friend wants your tC.

AngrySnail

Dear ZPI fanboy,..
to be frank, my oppurtunity is up. I'm afraid i've outwaited the possibility of owning this particular SRT4. The guys on these forums talked me out of it entirely, and what I thought once was a good idea, everyone here gave me the "What? Wait, why?!".
Even though I missed my chance with this one, I've been taking sometime and checking out some of these used car dealers. I see atleast two SRT4 a week. Even though no one (except you) agrees, there's something about this car I still want. I'm in a posistion where I no longer have the luxury of an equal trade. Now, i'm in a position where every good 2005 SRT4 in decent shape is atleast $19k, and my car's worth "$13k" (FuQin salesman!!!)- they usually end up giving me atleast 15K for mine, leaving me upside down -$2K; for end in the paying +$22K for a used SRT4.

I know it was your ZPI stg1 kit that did the damage, but do you have any idea exactly what caused it? I know a guy who recently an issue with his GReddy kit and the wastegate, and you could only imagine as to what happend next
I'm not blaming it on anyone, but all of these guys were like: "it's a Dodge", "it's a Neon"- I honestly didn't have a problem with either of those facts, so I assumed these guys knew something that I didn't know about Dodge or Neons. Ugly?! ...never. The SRT4 is one of the meanest looking sedans out there. UGLY is all the fat-chonga chicks drving our TC's now. I swear, whenever I happen to glance into one of the 57 TC's I see daily, 9/10 it's a girl drving! Like... the TC is the new beetle!
What went wrong with your kit though?... what do you think it was?

Should I just pay the extra money and get me that SRT4?
...I was kinda excited about boosting my TC again, but there's always that on the back of my head.

ps- I SOOOOO ran into your friend wih the SRT4 on the SRT forum! HE told me the same thing you did!

YourNameHere

if you really want a turbo go find an GTI with the 1.8T im sure you can find one for 15k or less now. it might not be as fast but they have TONS of potential and the VW scene is HUGE. probably 2nd to Honda.

jrodTc

If you really want a factory boosted car, why don't you just save up some money for a year or so and then trade the tC in on a used EVO or STI? Isn't there good reason you see 2 or 3 used SRT's sitting at teh dealer? But these are just my opinions, as I am not a fan of the SRT-4. Sorry, my friends 95 Neon just makes me want to puke thinking about how ____ttttty it was. Talk about problems!! It just ruined my opinion of Neons. Dyltone definaately appears to know his stuff from reading his post and the like, but I think you can safely run boost on a tC. 5-7psi on your daily driver will put you at 220-250 WHP. Talk about fun!!!

Robs_tc

I’m not a ZPI fan boy but Travis has been running the Stage 1 kit for over a year with great results and I don’t think he babies his car. A friend of mine has been running the turbonetics kit at 9psi for a year and I know he beats the ever loving crap out of it (+20k miles boosted). And the whole comment about a lot of girls driving tC’s, I can’t really argue against. I met my girl friend one day cruising with the tC being the topic of conversation. How often do you find a fine looking tuner girl whose car is tricked out more then half the people on this forum. I’d just hate to see you as another guy sporting an SRT4, don’t be that guy. Get an Sti or an Evo, something else. Sorry, I’m getting a little bias…. I’ll shut up now.

rhythmnsmoke

+1 Turboed and beating on it everyday. Motor holds fine. Over a year of abuse thus far. I seem to only break Drivetrain stuff...

Of course ZPI boosted and tuned by ZPI.


By the way...I voted for "No don't do it".

guitarguru44

you could just go with a small turbo on the tc and you should be fine with a new clutch and then maybe some other minimal mods... its all about how fast you want it and how much money you're willing to spend...

jrodTc

me too

Dyltone

The reason my car blew up, is a simple one. Bad Tune... Bad management... Emanage Blue should not be used on a MAF car without a pressure sensor, ignition sensor, et al. Plain and simple, Kenny tuned my car personally and the ring landings collapsed 2500 miles later (1000 of those were on the way home, in the rain, with NO BOOST).

I know that ZPI's kit today is the NOT the kit that was on my car. In fact, I showed Brett my hot side turbo pipe and he almost choked at the ____manship (yeah, that's a word!).

I'm not saying that others are not enjoying their boost either. What I am saying is that if you want A TURBO CAR, get a factory turbo'd car. Everyone on this forum that is boosting is "getting away with it" and it will catch up to them. The ONLY exceptions are people that are running FULL ENGINE MANAGEMENT (No piggy backs allowed) and UPGRADED INTERNALS. These folks (like me ) will be boosted for a long time, at least as long as any factory car running 400+ WHP.

Now, the reason you are seeing so many SRT-4's for sale... Their value is actually going up. People can actually trade their car in for more than they owe on their original loan. The SRT-4's were very limited production, a little over 20000 world wide, many of which have been wrecked by inexperienced drivers that convinced mom and dad that it was only a Neon. My roommate has an 03 Yellow SRT-4, only 1031 were made of that color. Her KBB value for her car has gone up 3k in the last year... That's unheard of for ANY CAR. People are taking advantage of the fact that Dodge has not released the new SRT-4 yet (based on the Caliber chassis) and getting stupid money for their cars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_SRT-4

Information not on Wikipedia
I think you should NOT pay 22k for a used SRT-4. I think you should save your pennies, make your payments and buy the new EVO X, cause that thing is going to be the ****!
http://paultan.org/archives/2007/01/...r-evolution-x/
Video's on the bottom of the page.

Dyltone

Also, check this site out:
http://www.lancerproject.com/

Click the links on the left side and don't forget the last one "Prototype X"

And watch this video of the AMAZING features of the 2008 GTS Lancer.
http://reviews.cnet.com/2008_Mitsubi...7-6722473.html

Now put those features of the GTS and put them in the EVO X... I need one of these ASAP.

Zsanz

i love srt4s im debating a used one with 30k over a new scion tc. but id get one just to rip off the spolier and make it be a sleeper.

Dyltone

You know there's a lot more to the look of the SRT-4 than just that spoiler, right?

Intercooler, Hood, Dual Exhaust, Rims, Tires, etc.

YourNameHere

^^ true but none look nearly as bad as that spoiler haha.

i would love to put the standard neon body parts onto it and make a sleeper.